Producers of Mischa's New Film Discuss Hospitalization

July 17, 2009 9:10AM

Actress Mischa Barton, who has been trying to resurrect her career after it got sidetracked following the end of The O.C., couldn’t have picked a worse day to end up being hospitalized for a reported nervous breakdown, as it caused her to miss the New York premiere of her newest film, Homecoming. on Thursday night.

“I found out she wasn’t going to be here last night,” producer Benji Kohn revealed to OK!. “We were very surprised. We didn’t have the details. We just heard the basics — that she was going through personal issues. That was the extent of it.”

One irony repeated by everyone at the premiere was just how well Mischa slipped into playing the role of a disturbed young woman who gets nasty revenge on her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend.

However, Freeman made it clear that Mischa is not the twisted person you see in the film. “She was playing a character that needed to be institutionalized,” he explained. “But that was acting.”

Producer Bingo Gubelmann said he actually surprised at how grounded Mischa was during the 20-day shoot. “She’s been an actress her entire life, and a lot of people who are like that, have kind of a disconnect,” he explained. “But she was, and she is, very professional and normal, and is very fun to hang out with. It is very fun to hang out with her, and hopefully it’s going to be fun to hang out with her sooner rather than later.”

As for Mischa’s arrest for DUI that caused the filmmakers to halt production, Gubelmann said, “I thought that was going to be the end-all. We weren’t really sure how she was going to be when she came back, but she was so apologetic and she was just like ‘let’s get right back at it.’ It was awesome to watch. She dove deeper into the character, and could take some of that anxiety of the stress of that situation out on a film that was shooting in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania.”

And while Gubelmann hasn’t talked to Mischa since hearing of her hospitalization, he does have a positive message for her: “This in no way affects my opinion of her as an actress, and I would gladly work with her in any project moving forward.”